Another local gun show flop

[Twiki357]

Local gun show today, admission $5 for one day $9 for the weekend.

The ladies might have liked it, plenty of jewelry and CCW purses. Usual assortment of plastic semi’s, knives and used junk. The only guns that attracted me was a nickeled S&W 29-2 for $995; ouch-pass, and a 15-4 that looked real nice for $450 (As compared to a 15-3 on Backpage asking $375.) Ended up with a pad of targets, a couple of speed strips and dodged a dog fight.

A couple of sellers with plenty of commercial reloaded ammo and a lot of bullets for reloading, but no powder, primers or even once fired bress.

Glad I didn’t go for the $9 weekend rate since I covered the whole place (Twice) in a little over two hours.

 

[herkyguy]

My favorites are always the cheapo samurai swords. Doesn't matter what state or what gun show, there's always one guy selling knock-off samurai swords.....

 

[orionengnr]

a little perspective...

Try seeing the glass as half full.

For $5, you got an opportunity to look at a bunch of stuff you may have never seen at your LGS. And the opportunity to spend as much time as you choose to among like-minded people.

For Pete's sake, you could have gone to a movie, spent $11 (plus another $15 for popcorn and Coke) and given your money to a bunch of people who want to deprive you of your 2A rights.

Adjust your expectations.

When guns shows have been outlawed, and you can no longer legally buy FTF, cry to me.

Until then, enjoy what we have. These are "the good old days".

 

[Captcurt]

Our last show was like that. There is one next weekend but some dufus scheduled it on opening day of archery season. I usually have 3 or 4 tables, but not next week. I haven't missed the local club show in 4 years but deer outrank the show.

 

[RustyShackelford]

Reeking.....

I tend to avoid the fairgrounds gun shows. I think in the last 14 years or so, I've gone maybe 4 or 5 times. There's plenty of vendors & exhibitors but there's also a lot of musty old surplus stuff & rank odors of Chinese take-out/fast food grease.

The place gets a good size crowd but a lot of it's camping & prepper stuff not guns or ammunition.

 

[Twiki357]

orionengnr: Adjust your expectations.

Oh, my expectations were right on target, it’s my wildest dreams that were dashed. And the last time I was at the movies was when my daughter took me see episode FIVE of Star Wars when it was released.

 

[scaevola]

That's sad to hear. I used to quite enjoy the gun shows in Prescott / Prescott Valley and they were usually more than good enough to justify the entry fee.

Since leaving AZ I've timed trips to Prescott to coincide with gun shows a couple of times and always found enough things I like to make it worth my while.

I even joked with a friend that we should leave early this morning to drive down then come back home tonight -- he didn't show much interest. I guess it's just as well we didn't risk it.

Local gun show today, admission $5 for one day $9 for the weekend.

The ladies might have liked it, plenty of jewelry and CCW purses. Usual assortment of plastic semi’s, knives and used junk. The only guns that attracted me was a nickeled S&W 29-2 for $995; ouch-pass, and a 15-4 that looked real nice for $450 (As compared to a 15-3 on Backpage asking $375.) Ended up with a pad of targets, a couple of speed strips and dodged a dog fight.

A couple of sellers with plenty of commercial reloaded ammo and a lot of bullets for reloading, but no powder, primers or even once fired bress.

Glad I didn’t go for the $9 weekend rate since I covered the whole place (Twice) in a little over two hours.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

The ones I go to are mostly "show". I go looking for collector guns and see them on display. The same old cronies bring the same old guns priced at nearly twice what they should be and then low ball you on anything you are carrying. I have seen some of the same guns for the past 5 years.

 

[cane]

I went to one in Denver today, numerous venders with powder (I bought a pound of Red Dot for $25) primers, about $31/1,000, and some .30 carbine ammo. Best show in a long time.

 

[Mosin Bubba]

The gun shows around here have the same ol' same ol' - people selling used guns for brand-new prices, half-empty bricks of .22 for sixty bucks, sticks of beef jerky. All that usual stuff. They are a good place to go to get little odds and ends though. At the last one I went to, I got some factory 8mm ammo I needed to test a Mauser that wasn't firing quite right, and some stripper clips for my Mosins. And for $5 they aren't a bad way to kill an afternoon. But I don't go in there expecting to find any deals, and certainly not looking to buy a gun.

Went to a gun show during Banic 2013 - now that was interesting. Gun show stuff is always over priced, but there's still nothing like seeing a bunch of $3000 ARs or a stack of $80 Pmags.

 

[george burns]

anyone go to the Ft Pierce show, it was in a different location, I naturally went to the location I have gone to a dozen times, and no gun show. There were paper signs in the streets that were washed away from torrential storms in FL.
Couldn't find a trace of it, if someone actually went please let me know and I will give it another shot tomorrow, thanks.

 

[AlexanderA]

It's true that the small, local gun shows have been in decline for years. Meanwhile, the really big shows, like the Nation's Gun Show in northern Virginia, are thriving. The slogan seems to be, "Go big or go home."

 

[Manny]

We have a decent size gun show about 4 times a year. I enjoy going just to check out new offerings from the manufacturers, peruse the various used guns, accessories, supplies & whatnot for sale. There are also a few book venders there that usually have interesting reading material and lately, in what I see as an encouraging sign, quite a few venders selling survival supplies & gear. All this while communing with hundreds of likeminded folks. Well worth the $6.00 admission IMHO

 

[CapnMac]

there's also a lot of musty old surplus stuff

Ah, the one thing I miss most about shows in the DFW area over the haunts I used to browse in central Texas.

 

[Rock185]

Twiki, I still enjoy the shows at Tims Toyota Center, but Firing Pin Ent. shows, not so much. We have the Firing Pin shows here, Payson, sometimes, but I wouldn't travel even a short distance out of town to attend one of those. FPE shows always seem a bit seedy to me. Did the woman with the SUPER long (5"-6") fingernails take your money to get in? Tims Toyota is a bit of a drive for me, but we usually hit Gurley Street Grill, or that Celtic Pub in Prescott Valley for lunch, so it's all good.

 

[Old Dog]

Is this the monthly gun-show bashing thread?

Hey, at least we can still have gun shows. As orienengnr says, let's try seeing the glass as half-full ... There may come a day in the not-too-distant future when gun shows are a thing of the past and we're all reduced to looking at whatever's in our local retail store if we want to see something in person.

In this state, the probable passage of I-594 may have a huge impact on the gun shows as we know them now. For now, we are blessed with the usually pretty doggone good Washington Arms Collectors shows ...

I try to go every month, and it's not just so much about what's on the tables, but rather, being around a few thousand of my fellow gunfolks.

And I've always been able to find at least one or two deals (usually used guns) every show that more than make up for the price of admission (or in my case, annual membership).

Go on complaining about the shows. But you just might miss them when they are no more.

 

[longknife12]

Last one I attended was in Colorado Springs....$70 for bricks of .22's, $60 for
very use gi 45 mags.A lot of offers on CC Classes.....had one sense they came out! Left with nothing. Then the drive home...haven't been to one in Denver in about 5 years.
Dan

 

[Plan2Live]

For the limited investment I spend in time and money I still find the local Land of the Sky Gun and Knife show worth attending. I prefer to handle items I want to buy rather than cruise the Internet and take my chances with quality, fit, etc. If I didn't attend gun shows I never would have discovered the carry belt I currently use sold by the guy that sells Universal Concealment Holsters. I don't care for his holsters but love his belts. www.universalholsters.com.

I found my Sig 239 and bought it at a great price from the owner in a private sale at one of these shows. And I continue to look for my Winchester Model 1890 Short Only pump action .22 that was stolen from a trusted friend's house a few years ago when my attorney advised me to get my guns out of my house while I was going through a divorce. If I ever find that gun I will buy it on the spot, no questions asked, no mention that it is stolen. It was my grandfather's gun and it is priceless to me.

So yeah, I go to shows.

 

[redneck2]

adjust your expectations.

Yep. I think a lot of guys forget that you are looking at the world's biggest gun show right now in front of you. You can search about every gun shop in America with a few clicks. No local gun show is gonna be able to compete with that

Having helped at a lot of various type shows, I can tell you that they are expensive and labor intensive. Once I have that investment it's kinda hard to compete with someone that sells from a huge warehouse and charges shipping so you have to eat the labor cost. I can mark my stuff so the end price is exactly the same but few seem to figure shipping into the price

 

[WestKentucky]

Our local shows always aggravate me. Same vendors in the same spots with the same stuff. Not a single vendor who deals heavily in revolvers, and everything very expensive. What's great though is that people wandering around get offered half of what their gun is worth so much that when you put a good number in front of them they might just take it. I bought a police positive 38spl a few years ago like that for $200 in 90% condition but locking up and functioning perfectly. I also have sold a few at shows where guys see overpriced guns on the table then take your gun for the reasonable number you throw out. My favorite things are consistently old auto shotguns (rem 11 and descendants, auto 5s) and the wandering crowd. The junk gun dealer with 4 for $100 is always fun to dig through boxes of lorcins, RGs, ravens, and the rest of the ring of fire guns. I have bought many of those just to spend time making nice again, always end up trading them off on something I want more once they are presentable or at least functional.

 

[skoro]

I went to my last gun show 6 years ago.

Pay to get access to the overcrowded parking lot, then pay to get in the door. Once inside, the lobby is full of everything BUT guns. Velvet Elvis paintings, wire and bead "jewelry", t-shirts, stuff like that.

Get to the main floor and there are plenty of brand new polymer pistols at inflated prices, lots of overpriced rusty milsurps, and WAY too much Nazi paraphernalia for my taste. If that show would have been an exception, I would have overlooked it. But it wasn't. It's what's become the norm around here.

No sir. My gun show days are now behind me.

YMMV

 

[Tirod]

A couple of reasons why the surplus is gone: One, there's only one in one hundred who serve now, not the one in ten who did up thru the '70s. There simply aren't musty old veterans in any quantity any more. So, no surplus or guys who deal in it.

Second, the .Gov is selling it thru DRMO, and every commander on base can buy it before it goes to the public. A lot of stuff which should never have been sold is going right back to other units flea market style to reduce our overhead. It spread out the goods available without forcing budgets up or expending hard budget cash.

There's also the follow on - if there's only one in one hundred who are now vets, that means the other nine guys who never served aren't interested in surplus either. It's a much smaller market now, less dollars change hands, fewer buyers. Kids aren't kitted out in old musty canvas pistol belts or metal canteens any more, in fact, for the money, they can get a hydration bladder and pack from Walmart for less.

It's really changed gun shows not to have a lot of surplus, experienced vets and collectors, or a general public who is at least 10% veteran. Now it's 1% veteran and the rest could care less. If anything, I'm surprised I haven't seen used video gamers set up a booth. It's there market niche which fits in pretty well.

 

[jakk280rem]

Sounds alot like the Salem, OR gun show, only better.

 

[bannockburn]

I stopped going to gun shows years ago. As others have already stated same old table holders with the same overpriced guns they've had on their tables for the past decade or so. Of course their guns are pure gold while anything you're trying to sell/trade is just so much worthless scrap metal (even when the things you've got are in better condition than what they've got). Just about everything else I can find online with a better selection to choose from and typically much better prices. So nowadays I have a lot more time to spend with my family on the weekends and these days that's a really great thing.

 

[Vodoun da Vinci]

Used to go every year back in the day...have been absent from shooting sports for decades and last Summer came back to the gun fancy. Started shooting/training and seeing what's new after 30 years. I have seen and learned *many* new and powerful things in the last 17 months. Buying reloading supplies via the 'Net, shopping for guns that no LGS has ever heard of let alone stocked or will rent, met friends that know *lots* of stuff on Internet Forums (like THR) and got over my aversion to plastic guns.

I went to the local gun show at the fair grounds. Once last Summer. Never again locally - maybe a big city show if I get the chance. Lot's of stuff has changed in 30 years and the local gun show is one of them. Don't know why but there was nothing there I wanted/needed and not many I talked to knew what they were talking about. A few old timers who knew AR's and 1911's like the back of their hands but mostly "hawkers" selling whatever they could con someone into buying. I *did* have a good time talking to the Rock River Arms and Springfield Armory Dudes as both of these companies are local and the product displays and information was very good.

I can get the same from an evening at home browsing their websites. No more local gun shows for me and it does hurt to say that. The time here locally for that seems to have passed.

VooDoo